Spirit Forge (Defiance)
Blood Fountain.jpg|thumb|300px|right|A Blood Fountain changing from Red to Black Blood.]] Following Ariel 's description, each of the elemental forges were designed as baptisms for the the Soul Reaver , and the Spirit Forge was the final one of them. The Soul Reaver, being the spirit of Raziel, was a devourer of souls. Those souls which were devoured were simultaneously fed to the Elder God who recycled them in the Wheel of Fate, where they would be reborn in its endless cycle of birth, death and rebirth. In Soul Reaver 1 Raziel found different elemental forges with which he could temporarily imbue the reaver with elemental attributes aligned to each Pillar of Nosgoth . By the time of Defiance the soul reaver had evolved to the point where onced imbued it retained the elemental baptism permenently. Along his journey in Defiance, Raziel had visited and gained Reaver enhancements from the Light, Dark, Air , Water , Fire and Earth forges, the latter four of which required the forges to be 'powered' by the spirits of the first vampire guardians and by using the soul reaver to devour their spirits and recycle them into the Wheel of Fate , Raziel was able to reclaim those elemental energies and acquire all 6 elemental reavers. The Balance guardians are unique, as unlike the other guardians who are bound to the pillars using some physical token, such as Moebius' hour glass or Mortanius' death orb; they are bound by their very souls. Kain being a unique balance guardian vampire, is even able to make vampires in his own unique way, as unlike the traditional blood gift, he creates vampires by "breathing" his own soul into those whom he wishes to raise, as he did with his 6 lieutenants. The soul he disperses then overtime regrows in him. Seeing as how the balance guardians are unique, it comes as no surprise then that so is the Spirit Forge. It was the only forge attuned specifically to the balance pillar and required all 8 reavers forms to activite. Unlike the other forges, the energies of this forge were dispersed into the spirits of every balance guardian that came before Kain. When the Spirit Forge was activited it summoned each of the balance guardians (represented by Ariel) and by devouring their spirits and recycling them into the Wheel of Fate, they were able to find absolution, while the energies of the Forge gave the reaver its final form, the Spirit Reaver. Notes The Spirit forge also had another vital function, as it called the souls of all balance guardians to the forge, it also called Kain there for the climax of Defiance, and creation of the Soul Reaver. The scene where Ariel is restored and absorbed into the Wraith blade to forge the Spirit Reaver, echoes one of the scenes in the Chronoplast from Soul Reaver, although it is much less confrontational. Ariel now restored, seems more accepting of her destiny. These scenes were from the original Soul Reaver storyline, where Ariel would have been taken into the reaver to create the 'Ariel Reaver' - the only weapon that could destroy Kain. In this storyline, The Spirit Reaver, and spirit forge were actually separate from the Ariel Reaver and Raziel would have used souls to imbue the Reaver with spirit, much like "feeding the reaver " in Defiance. The concept of the Spirit forge and reaver were also planned for an early version of Soul Reaver 2 , again they were unfinshed and removed, but ruins prominently bearing the spirit symbol at the bottom of the lake outside the Sarafan Stronghold suggest this was that games spirit forge location and that it would have been visited in a very early time period.